I argue that life hacking is a type of self-help reflective the
present moment. How should I refer to this mindset and moment? I have a
number of terms available to me. Foucault famously spoke of episteme,
the conditions of discourse by which knowledge claims are considered
acceptable. His “archeology” of the classic, renaissance, and modern
ages sought to uncover these conditions.1 Other cultural theorists
sometimes speak of periodization.2 Life hacking no doubt exemplifies
some of the of the contemporary episteme, especially the focus on
efficiency and quantification, but it is otherwise too broad. Life
hacking is a subculture, albeit one growing in influence. More
commonplace words include zeitgeist and milieu. Zeitgeist refers to
the spirit of a period, and it is too broad as well. Milieu means a
“person’s social environment,” but life hacking touches on a person’s
character too. Hence, I use the word ethos, which Oxford defines as
“The characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested
in its beliefs and aspirations.” It also traces its origins to the Greek
ēthos, meaning “nature” and “disposition.”3 Hence ethos captures
the more local, community, aspect of life hacking, its aspirations, and
the often geeky disposition of its practitioners.

Lawrence Besserman, The Challenge of Periodization: Old Paradigms
a New Perspectives, ed. Lawrence Besserman, The Challenge of
Periodization: Old Paradigms and New Perspectives (New York:
Garland, 1996), 4–11. ↩